News & Information for Amateur Bakers and Artisan Bread Enthusiasts

Main menu

Search form

You are here

I've been working on a new home made Gas Regeneration BBQ /Smoker

March 1, 2012 - 2:07pm

dabrownman

I've been working on a new home made Gas Regeneration BBQ /Smoker

that I hope to eventually use to make pizza. It's like a mini wood fired oven. It's built out of huge hominy can and a 40-56 oz can of beans. It's the best BBQ and smoker I have ever owned and it was nearly free! I'm pretty sure I could get a small 12" stone for it and turn it into a pizza oven fairly easily. It works on a small pile of 1/4" twigs and 4 charcoal briquettes. Amazing heat from that beast. Throw some wood chips on top you have a smoker that makes the best meat you have ever had. I can see a Pizza oven too .......

MAde a very nice apple smoked chicken breast for dinner. Just yummy, especially with the YW orange turmeric bread!

Comments

I probably spend more time smoking meats than making bread so I am very interested in the project. Would you be willing to share the specs a little more? What is that surface between the larger and smaller can... is it simply the lid, cut up with tin snips? And for serious smoking, do you have a plan for adding new fuel without letting all the smoke get out? And lastly, what do you plan to do for a permanent lid... I expect it will be something more elegant than the top of your old smoker, right?

If this is just too off topic for a bread board, please email me directly: chef at burntmyfingers dot com.

to grill / smoke or both a couple of chicken breasts, or 2 country ribs or a couple of hamburgers on a picnic or camping while using as little fuel as possible to make it as portable as possible. It's not meant to be reloaded for longer firing times. The lid would have been aluminum foil, not my old Brinkman smoker lid. I use the lid for convenience at home. For long time smoking I have a 30" electric smoker for my meat low and slow smoking. I also have made one for backpacking for 1 person that is made from 2 square tea tins and holds 2 briquetts.

I also made a gas wick for the larger one to turn it into a stove. I took some better pictures with my new camera and hopefully you can see how the holes are arranged on the inside can. the bottom is full of a s many 1/8" holes as you can squeeze in. Then there are some 1/4" holes around the sides at the top and bottom of the inside can too. You cut the hole in the top of the large can with tin snips that is 1/2 " smaller than the inside can diameter. Then you cut from the large hole to the actual small can diameter making tabs that can be slightly folded down and will hold the small can in place as it is pressed into the large can. The large can only has holes on the sides as shown and they are 1/2". I will make some kind of top when I figure out how to make this into a pizza oven.

Here are photos of the gas wick and the smaller stove. I hope my new camera works better.

Looks interesting. How do you make sure it doesn't rust apart? The inner can already seems to have started to rust a little bit? If you one day start making pizzas on that, you have to tell us how it tasted.

Both the inner and outer cans have a little bit of rust on them. They are about a year old in their new capacity, have been used many times and are kept out side. I'm guessing that since AZ is so dry the rust problem would be worse elsewhere. I just assumed that they would eventually burn up or rust away like tin cans do. I suppose I could slow it down by coating them with some grape seed oil of something between uses like a cast iron skillet but if figure they will last 3 years at this rate and then I might only have to replace the inside one that gets the most abuse.

I took them apart today after reading your post, not and easy task. I hadn't even noticed the rust, and checked to see if they were in bad shape at the one place where the two cans meet at the top (where they are friction fit together and likely to have problems). Thankfully they showed no rust there at all.

As soon as I find a 12" pizza stone for my table top Cuisinart small convection oven, I will use it for this little grill too, design some kind of top for it and see it can make pizzas. It is a great way to have a small impact on the environment for 1-2 people who don't have heat up a large grill. Plus it makes everyone smell, like a campfire, even when not camping :-) Will keep you informed.

Maybe you can try to fill the space between the cans with concrete, in that way it won't matter as much if the cans rust very much? It is just an idea, but I don't know if the concrete will be able to stand the heat and not crack apart.

between the cans is where the hydrogen gas, that is being regenerated from the burning twigs, finds its way up to the upper holes of the inner can where it is burned as it exits those holes. With the gas wick installed, it now acts as a gas stove too. Plus concrete would make it pretty heavy for camping and backpacking.

a hibachi too. Loved it. Can't make authentic yakatori otherwise. This little beast is fun though and quite a small footprint with 4 charcoal briquettes and some twigs. Can't wait to figure out how to make pizzas with it.

By the way, if like smoke flavor in the food, have you tried hickory liquid smoke from old try me spice house? It's really concentrated and gives a nice smoke flavor, just don't take too much of it. Good for many kinds of meats and marinades.

that I hope to eventually use to make pizza. It's like a mini wood fired oven. It's built out of huge hominy can and a 40-56 oz can of beans. It's the best BBQ and smoker I have ever owned and it was nearly free! I'm pretty sure I could get a small 12" stone for it and turn it into a pizza oven fairly easily. It works on a small pile of 1/4" twigs and 4 charcoal briquettes. Amazing heat from that beast. Throw some wood chips on top you have a smoker that makes the best meat you have ever had. I can see a Pizza oven too .......

That is cool, but if you have more foods to BBQ, it should be great. And if you have smokers like propane, electric or charcoal, they can help you much.

Ribs, brisket, sausages, pork shoulder and lots of Chicken thighs. This one is cute though and perfect for 1 person. The free price is pretty nice too plus it makes great smoked meats. Still haven't made a pizza with it though......

All original site content copyright 2017 The Fresh Loaf unless stated otherwise. Content posted by community members is their own. The Fresh Loaf is not responsible for community member content. If you see anything inappropriate on the site or have any questions, contact me at floydm at thefreshloaf dot com. This site is powered by Drupal and Mollom.